


got to get you out the cage

by rumandraisins



Series: be careful making wishes in the dark [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Don't worry, Minor Character Death, Morally Ambiguous Character, Multi, emphasis on ambiguous, it's none of the tagged characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 17:34:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13012755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rumandraisins/pseuds/rumandraisins
Summary: Serial killer boyfriends!au because Koushi is prone to adopting strays and Tooru is prone to indulging him, especially when Yachi Hitoka is more than willing to be adopted.





	got to get you out the cage

**Author's Note:**

> You know that Yachi Hitoka we know and love, who's innocent and pure and born from the tears of an angel? I'm sorry, _she can't come to the phone right now._
> 
> I mean, I regret nothing but I'm also really sorry.

When Hitoka is sixteen, her mother who never gave her so much as a second look, falls down the stairs to their apartment and breaks her neck. 

Hitoka finds her dead body and starts screaming the whole apartment building down. She had to be sedated so she would calm down and when she woke up to the knowledge that her mother was dead, she stops talking for over a year.

Poor thing, the nurses whisper, as she huddles beneath the shock blanket, small and alone and crying quiet tears. 

What could the trauma have done to her fragile psyche?

They fuss over her incessantly, and she cries and cries and cries while the doctor expresses his condolences, and tells her there was nothing they could do.

She’s sobbing too hard to say anything in reply.

She goes to live with her grandparents, and starts high school in a completely new neighborhood. Somehow, she makes friends and finds a niche within the boys volleyball team, of all places. Her grandparents would have been concerned, but it’s those weird, silly boys who put the smile back on their precious granddaughter’s face so they learned to be grateful instead.

Hitoka starts humming while making posters one night - the first sound that’s ever slipped her lips for the past half-year - and it’s like they’ve been granted a miracle. 

Inside her room, Hitoka plans out an ad for her new club, crosses out a name in her mental list of names, and smiles.

Inside her room, Hitoka hasn’t been able to stop smiling for the past six months.

  


* * *

  
She meets Suga-san in university.

Hitoka mistakenly takes a dance class, her partner botches a lift and subsequently insists on carrying her to the the clinic no matter how many times Hitoka’s assured him she’s okay. 

She’s _not,_ but of course she doesn’t say that because that’s not what timid, wilting flower Yachi Hitoka would do. Timid, wilting flower Yachi Hitoka would bring her hands up placatingly and apologize a million times, so that’s exactly what she does.

She has a reputation to maintain, after all.

Suga-san is pre-med and volunteers his time there, for absolutely nothing in return, because he’s just that kind of person.

He’s pretty and gentle, and his bedside manner should be boxed up, tied with a shiny ribbon and sold by the pound.

Hitoka doesn’t fall in love, but it’s a very close thing. 

It’s a good thing she doesn’t, too, because he has a boyfriend he’s completely wrapped up in and Hitoka really didn’t want to make him sad.

(Tooru doesn’t kill Yachi Hitoka, but only because Koushi thinks she’s cute and it would make him sad.

“But what about _me?”_ Tooru whines. “Aren’t you concerned that _I’m_ sad?”

“I’m very concerned,” Koushi humors, rolling over and rubbing the long, lean line of his body against Tooru’s in the most distracting way. He leans up to whisper hotly in Tooru’s ear, “However could I make you happy again, Tooru?”

Tooru tells him.

Koushi spends the rest of the night worshipping Tooru with his body in thanks for letting him take in another stray.)

He told her, “My door is always open for you, Yacchan,” so Hitoka takes him up on that, because she can be shameless if she wants. At first, it’s so he could follow up on her leg, and that takes weeks, but then after that, it’s just because. He calls her cute, and lets her talk about graphic design even though he knows absolutely nothing about it and makes her tea when she wants to complain about her professors. 

He’s _so_ nice. And _so_ pretty. And _so_ together. 

Hitoka would hate him if she didn’t like him so much.

And their friendship would have just stayed that way, too, if it weren’t for Yukie.

Yukie is a psychology major. Hitoka is shopping with her when they bump into Suga-san on a date with his boyfriend and they eat in the food court together. 

Yukie, who eyes her seriously when Suga-san and Oikawa-san leave for their movie, and tells her straight-up that she thinks Hitoka’s new friends are psychopaths.

Hitoka freaks out, like Yukie expects, talks about _Psycho_ and _Criminal Minds_ and _ohmygod what if they are after me, what if I’m their next victim, is that the reason why Suga-san is_ so nice?

Yukie laughs, pats her head, tells her she’s been watching too many suspense thrillers. 

But maybe she should stay away from them, just in case.

Hitoka nods tearfully.

And then, over the next few weeks, she slowly, methodically cuts Yukie out of her life, because that’s what you do to toxic friends who are not willing to accept you for who you are.

But at the same time, it’s Yukie who gives her the idea.

All she needs is an opportunity.

It comes in the form of her now _ex_ -boyfriend, who liked to go very far, very fast and didn’t bother asking for Hitoka’s opinion on either. 

At first, she just cries to Suga-san. She’s pretty heartbroken, he’s her first college relationship and it _hurts._ Suga-san provides a shoulder to lean on and a listening ear, and coos sympathetically at all the right moments.

And then finally she tells him she’d been dumped because he wanted more and Hitoka didn’t want to give it to him.

“Oh, Yacchan,” Suga-san hugs her. “He doesn’t deserve you.”

A week later, said undeserving ex-boyfriend is killed in a mugging gone wrong. 

When she tells Suga-san about this news, he clicks his tongue. “I’m sorry,” he says softly. “But it’s hard for me to muster up a lot of sympathy, knowing how he treated you. I wish you know by now that you’re worth so much more than these lowlives, Yacchan.”

It really _is_ too bad that Suga-san is very happily taken.

But it’s okay. 

Because Hitoka meets someone else. 

Her name is Shimizu-san and she’s _amazing._ She gorgeous and has the most soothing voice in the world, even more than Suga-san, and she compliments Hitoka’s notes because they’re so organized and look like they really help her study well.

That compliment alone leaves Hitoka on a high for _days._

 _This is love at first sight,_ she thinks dreamily.

Suga-san teases her and encourages her in equal amounts.

The problem about Shimizu-san, though?

She has far too many admirers. 

And there’s one in particular who insists on inserting herself _every single time_ Hitoka gets even the slightest bit of alone time with Shimizu-san, and Hitoka does not like it. 

“We’re rivals, you and I,” she tells Hitoka one day. “Don’t think I’ll hold back just because you’re a timid little Townsperson B.”

What’s really annoying though? The fact that she can’t even see that’s she’s batting way beyond her league. Rivals? Is she trying to make Hitoka laugh? As if Hitoka will ever stand on the same ground with someone so obviously desperate.

She talks about it with Suga-san. Laments, _Shimizu-san won’t notice me, I’m nobody._ Bludgeons her self-worth and then buries it for good measure. Talks about her rival who called her a Townsperson B _and I’m not even mad, Suga-san, because that’s something I’ve already called myself many times._

“Is that so?” Suga-san asks, smoothing her hair back. “Listen to me, Yacchan.”

And he gives her the best pep talk ever given in the history of man.

A funny coincidence – Hitoka’s rival, the one who called her Townsperson B? She falls down the stairs on the way to a night class and breaks her neck.

Tragic.

The entire school mourns.

 _Such_ a great loss.

She will be missed.

Hitoka briefly entertains the idea of creating a helpful pamphlet inspired by this dreadful little accident – _Bitches Better Watch Your Step_ – but then dismisses it, because it’s not exactly tasteful.

Four months later, Hitoka finally secures a date with Kiyoko-san.

The day after that, Hitoka enters the university clinic so they can talk about dates with their significant others, but Suga-san only shares the most inane of stories, she can’t stand it. She snaps, “ _Please_ Suga-san, I know what you and Oikawa-san _really_ do for fun.”

It’s the first time she’s ever broken her mask in front of another person.

She doesn’t have time to regret it. 

When she looks up at him, Suga-san’s face is split by the most brilliant smile she’s ever seen.

“Poor, imprisoned little lion cub,” he whispers, tilting her chin up with his fingers and looking at her with sparkling eyes. “How would you like to come out and play?”

And, well. 

Hitoka _does_ have a mental list of names.

Suga-san teaches her how to quietly make her way through it, one by one. 

(“Do you love her more than you love me?” Tooru demands, clutching Koushi close, thrusting up to him hard and fast and angry.

“No,” Koushi gasps, tilting his head obligingly when Tooru turns to bite at his neck. “I’m never going to love anyone like I love you, Tooru.”

Tooru believes him.

Not just because Koushi is telling the truth.

But also because Tooru knows exactly how far he’s willing to go to dispose of trash who would ever dare take Koushi away from him.)

**Author's Note:**

> \- This story was initially meant for Hinata. But it wouldn’t work out, because wow, I found a HQ character I couldn’t ruin. So I tried with Yamaguchi, and I couldn’t do it either. I had a crisis, as in: Karasuno first years are too pure and precious for this world and I can’t touch them with my filthy hands!! >.< I’m not saying Yachi is isn’t pure. Quite the contrary, in fact. But at the same time, consider how simple it would be for smol, clumsy, nervous, sometimes overlooked Yachi Hitoka to play at helpless so she can move the world in the way that she wants and never once be suspected for anything. 
> 
> Really fucking simple, as it turns out.
> 
> \- I feel like I'm spamming the OiSuga tag, I'm so sorry. I'm just really trying to ride out the wave of this Need. It'll taper down soon, I promise. (Hopefully.)
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!


End file.
